Judge Dredd Babysitter
by MrData
Summary: My very short first entry. All comments apreciated, especially constructive criticism. Depending on feedback, I might expand on this story in the future. It appears that there is no category for any character from the 2000 AD comic, which I loved when


Dredd adjusted his posture in the seat of his Lawmaster bike and looked out from the lay-by across the sprawling city. He never got tired of looking at the marvel of the tower blocks, even though as one of the city's top judges he rarely had the time to look. At 200 metres up, the lay-by offered a panoramic view of the East side of the city all the way to the wall, on the other of which was the radioactive cursed earth desert. The sky was a clear blue apart from a localised rain shower slightly to the North, probably cooling down a block war or just washing the streets.

"Er, what are we looking for sir?"

Dredd slowly turned his head to the rookie judge Johnson who was sitting on his own Lawmaster next to his mentor. Johnson's uniform was immaculate, the rookie half badge shining on his chest. Dredd felt a pang of guilt, as he had had his uniform on for two days solid now and the tough fabric showed definite signs of wear.

"We are on traffic duty Johnson, so what are we looking for?"

"Er, traffic offences and crashes, while on the alert for anything out of the ordinary"

"Yes." Dredd sighed. He wasn't keen on new rookies. Babysitting, as some of the other judges called it, was a waste of his talents. Johnson wasn't a bad kid, but surprisingly at less than half Dredd's age he was already showing the kind of skills that would make him into a good judge one day. If he stopped asking stupid questions.  
He was jolted from his thoughts by his radio chirping.

"Dredd here."

"This is Conner. We have a Speedopod screaming down towards you. Perp wanted alive for questioning about a murder. Please confirm"

Dredd looked up the road to see a bright red sleek auto speeding down the hill towards them, weaving erratically through the traffic.

"Confirmed Conner, we see them."

He gunned the engine of his Lawmaster and heard Johnson do the same. After waiting a second, he put the Lawmaster into gear and sped out onto the road. Turning his lights and siren on, he waited for Johnson to catch up.

"Course of action, rookie?"

"Make the Perp aware of our presence and try to get him to pull over?"

"Too slow" replied Dredd as the Speedopod swerved into the side of a blue car. The blue car spun and ended up facing the wrong way.

"Control, crash cleanup squad to Skyway sixteen, junction 113."

"What do we do?" Said Johnson, panic creeping into his voice.

"Take out the tyres!" Dredd shouted, opening up with his bike cannon. Two bullets caught the left rear tyre of the car, causing it to spin sideways and roll over twice, finally coming to rest on it's wheels.

Dredd and Johnson stopped twenty metres behind the Speedopod, Johnson jumped off and immediately assumed the standard cover position behind his Lawmaster, gun drawn. Dredd smiled. If anyone was firing at them, one good hit on the reinforced fuel tank Johnson was hiding behind and he'd be in a bodybag.

"What are you doing?" Asked Dredd.

"Covering the vehicle?" suggested Johnson.

"Get up." ordered Dredd. "If anyone was going to fire at you, they'd have done it by now!"

Sheepishly, Johnson rose to his feet and followed his mentor toward the Speedopod.  
The driver's door creaked open on buckled hinges, and the dazed Perp stepped out onto the roadway. He was very thin, with ragged clothes that may have been very expensive a long time ago, but there were rips all over them, as if he'd been attacked by a wild animal. Lifting his head, he saw two blurred uniformed figures walking towards him. Panicking, he turned, ran into the side of his car and fell to the ground.

"Make the arrest, rookie." Ordered Dredd.

Johnson made towards the Perp with his gun in one hand and his handcuffs in the other.

The Perp struggled to his feet and before Johnson could get to him, he'd stumbled over to the railing at the side of the road and climbed over it. He disappeared over the railing and was heading for the ground two hundred metres below.

"Tracker!" Dredd shouted to his gun, pulling it out of it's holster and running for the railing. The Lawgiver beeped and a metallic voice replied. "Tracker loaded and ready"

Dredd leaned over the railing, found his target and fired a single shot downwards. There was a scream from below them as the tracker dart embedded itself deep into the Perp's thigh.

"Sky control, this is Dredd." He said into his radio. "Can you retrieve the tracker dart I just fired?"

"Dredd, this is Sky control. No problem. Please standby."

A few moments later, a sky camera, normally used to watch traffic and follow Perps, flew up over the railing, the Perp's leg held tightly by the camera's grappling arm. The camera dumped the Perp on the ground in front of Dredd's feet, beeped a couple of times, then flew off.

"Cuff him." Dredd said to Johnson, who was frozen in awe.

"Er, yes sir!" He said, snapping to attention.

"Here," said Dredd, throwing Johnson his own cuffs. "Cuff his ankles too, so he can't try to kill himself again. Control, we have one to pick up."

Within a minute, a catch wagon landed next to the Speedopod and three judges climbed out.

"How's the babysitter going?" smiled one judge.

"The rookie is performing fairly well, Conner." replied Dredd, stone-faced.

Conner quickly realised that the joke wasn't very funny after all, and got on with the job of lifting the Perp into the wagon, thinking to himself that maybe the rumours about Dredd not having a sense of humour might just be true.


End file.
